It’s another epic weekend of fun around Greater Cincinnati and gosh, we do love our festivals, don’t we? This weekend, we cheer on stalwarts like the Kentucky Wool Festival , which celebrates its 41st year, and around Northern Kentucky, we say cheers to Bourbon & Belonging , a brand new festival founded by Louisville-based nonprofit Queer Kentucky. You’ll also find festivals saluting autumnal foods and flowers, a wonderfully authentic Oktoberfest, a film festival showcasing Indian filmmakers, and Cincinnati Black Pride hosts the Black Alphabet Film Festival.
There are also several artsy happenings, including a new exhibition at the Taft Museum of Art, the popular Essex Art Walk and the Hyde Park Square Art Show, and you’ll find more opening receptions for works that are part of the 2024 FotoFocus Biennial .
1. Jack O’Lantern Glow
Immersive, family-friendly walk-through experience showcases more than 5,000 hand-carved, illuminated pumpkins and fall displays along a half-mile trail inside the zoo. All visitors, including zoo members, will need to reserve a date and time-specific ticket in advance.
Details: 6:30-9:30 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 6:30-10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, 3400 Vine St., Avondale. Runs Oct. 3-6, Oct. 11-13, Oct. 18-31. $25, $20 ages 3-12, free ages under 3. Cincinnatizoo.org .
2. Kentucky Wool Festival
This is a juried craft festival with high-quality, unique items. You’ll find live music on two stages, concessions, sheep shearing and sheep herding demonstrations, a wool tent with raw, washed and ready-to-spin fleeces from sheep, alpacas, goats, llamas and rabbits, as well as natural colored and dyed yarn, tools for crocheting, knitting, weaving and rug hooking, felted goods and more. New infrastructure investments and improvements include repaved grounds and expanded parking…